


Brown-Eyed Monster

by OnceUponAWhim



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 22:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11495829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceUponAWhim/pseuds/OnceUponAWhim
Summary: Lucy has been an avid reader since those “History for Kids” books of her childhood. But now, she probably shouldn’t read too far into things… [Wyatt/Lucy, post-season 1]





	Brown-Eyed Monster

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has been on my mind for a while, but I never had time to do anything about it. Now that I had some time, I was super impatient and this came out pretty rushed – apologies for that.
> 
> Unrelated to "Blue-Eyed Monster"; I just liked the parallel titles.
> 
> Takes place at some undefined time in season 2, in which they're still chasing after Emma and Rittenhouse. Lucy and Wyatt's relationship status is holding steady at 'maybe open to possibilities'.

Lucy was actually kind of grateful for the escape that hunting in the basement for paper bowls provided.

Less than forty-eight hours ago, she and Rufus and Wyatt had landed back in the present after an utterly exhausting week-long campaign in 1871 to ensure the unification of Germany as they knew it. Between Wyatt having to do all of the translating, and her having to try and keep track of everything that  _should_  have been happening, history-wise, the two of them had been so drained, they'd barely made it back to his apartment, where she had been staying since she'd learned of her mother's Rittenhouse involvement.

But to their surprise, none of her belongings had been at his place. As if she'd never been there at all. Still, they'd both been too tired to figure out what that actually meant; as she slipped into the t-shirt and pajama pants Wyatt had offered her in the absence of her own clothes, Lucy half-wondered if it meant she was supposed to be living with Noah, or some other guy. Not that it would matter; it was Wyatt's scent on Wyatt's clothes that she fell asleep to, on Wyatt's couch, with the anticipation of possibilities still in the back of her mind somewhere.

It was when she woke up the next morning and checked her phone for the first time since returning to the present that the pieces started to fall into place.

Two texts and one missed call.

From Amy.

_Amy._

Lucy had let out such a panicked-sounding cry for Wyatt that he'd nearly broken multiple limbs as he'd flown down the hallway from his bedroom, stumbling and still half-asleep.

She'd reassured him that the tears streaming down her face were good tears, thrusting her phone at him to show off the texts and wallpaper photo of her with Amy. As best they could figure that quickly, going back to Germany before the Hindenburg must have somehow affected the family of the girl, Irene, that had ended up surviving the airship disaster. If something they'd just done meant that Irene never existed, her granddaughter then never existed to marry Henry Wallace before he met Carol Preston. So he  _did_  meet her. And Amy was back.

Everything since then was a blur. Somehow, she'd managed to throw her own clothes back on and drive to her (their!) mother's house without crashing, and there she was. Amy, just pouring her travel mug of coffee before racing out of the house to go record one of her podcasts. She'd pressed a kiss to Lucy's cheek, promising she'd be home in time for dinner so they could finish the barbecue plans.

It was a whirlwind, but Lucy had never been more thrilled.

With Amy at work, she'd spent the rest of the day poking around the house and trying to figure out what had changed.

It had quickly become clear that their mother had died, which, Lucy realized, made complete sense. In the original timeline, she'd been so ill. And with the months that had gone by since then? It was kind of to be expected.

It had been upsetting to discover that, but in some ways, Lucy was actually glad that she had passed. Even if she'd been Rittenhouse in this timeline, her death meant that they wouldn't actively be fighting against her, which was a relief.

Emails and paperwork had clued Lucy into the fact that she and Amy were still trying to decide whether to keep the house or to sell, Amy was still doing podcasts but had also begun an MBA program, and well, she, Lucy, was still on a leave of absence from Stanford in order to do all this stuff for Mason Industries. And apparently, Amy had wanted to keep up their mother's penchant for hosting parties and had insisted on hosting a summer party for friends and colleagues, which turned out to be the barbecue Amy had mentioned when running out the door.

When Amy had returned later that day, Lucy couldn't help but be a little clingy. Thankfully, if Amy had noticed anything weird about her behavior, she hadn't commented. A night lounging on the couch, eating ordered-in Thai food and watching old 80's movies had been exactly what Lucy had needed after so long without Amy.

They'd also gone over the barbecue plans and guest list.

Lucy had recognized the name of some of Amy's friends, and their neighbors, and was pleased to hear that Rufus and his family, Jiya, and Agent Christopher and her family were included. She ignored the teasing lilt to Amy's voice when she'd rattled off from further down the list,  _Wyatt, of course_.

For as much as she'd wanted to get Amy back, Lucy well knew that her little sister would be relentless in her teasing and prodding when it came to whatever her current undefined status with Wyatt was. At least she hadn't realized that it was his place that Lucy had come from that morning.

As thrilling as it had been for Lucy to find that her current work colleagues were well entrenched in her personal life, and Amy's personal life – it sounded like she and Jiya had really hit it off – what she had really been looking forward to was introducing  _this_ Rufus and  _this_ Wyatt to Amy. Of course Amy knew the Rufus and Wyatt of this timeline, but not the true Rufus and Wyatt that had been through  _everything_  of the past eight or nine months. They were the only people in the world who knew what Lucy had gone through  _without_  Amy.

And the first introduction had gone wonderfully as soon as the barbecue was underway. One of the neighbors had graciously offered to man the grill for a while, drinks were in coolers, a keg was tapped, food was laid out, and Rufus and Jiya, along with Rufus' whole family had shown up. Amy and Jiya were clearly great friends, and Rufus' younger brother also clearly had a crush on Amy. All of which was  _wonderful_ , and once Jiya had dragged Amy away somewhere, Rufus had pulled Lucy into a bear hug and whispered how happy he was for her.

Wyatt hadn't made an appearance yet, but a neighbor had brought a vat of a chilled watermelon soup that required more than a plate, so Lucy was down in the basement hunting for paper bowls. After so many months of interacting almost solely with her mother, Wyatt, Rufus, and the team from Mason, it was almost overwhelming to suddenly be thrown back into a life that involved a sister, neighbors, colleagues, friends, and parties; she appreciated the breather.

She rummaged through a few boxes of Tupperware and paper towels, until finally she located half a pack of bowls that would suffice. Grabbing the stack, she hurried back up the stairs toward the kitchen.

But the sight that greeted her had her skidding to a halt.

Apparently she didn't need to introduce Amy to Wyatt, for as Lucy stood there, neither of them having noticed her reemergence into the kitchen. They were already talking, and Amy let out a squeal mid-conversation, grabbed Wyatt's face, planted a kiss on his cheek, and launched herself into Wyatt's arms. And Wyatt was going along with it, laughing and hugging her right back.

Lucy's legs felt shaky as she watched the interaction unfold. It felt like a literal punch in the gut; she wanted to vomit. Numbly, she shoved the bowls at the nearest guest and raced up the stairs to her bedroom. Once there, she closed the door behind her and flopped down onto her childhood bed, tears finally streaming down her cheeks.

_Wyatt and Amy?_

For all her insistence that she get Amy back, she'd never really considered what might have happened if her sister had met Wyatt in their original timeline. Ok, fine, she'd had the tiny fleeting thought, that day back before Emma had hijacked the mothership, that if Wyatt helped get Amy back, he might possibly hit it off with her. But then he'd mentioned possibilities, and Lucy had been so sure that he'd meant  _her_  and that he might finally have been moving on enough from Jessica to consider  _something_  with her, Lucy. Of course, all hell had broken loose only an hour or so later, and with her mother being revealed as Rittenhouse, Lucy had ended up platonically camped out on Wyatt's couch instead of exploring the possibilities of something more.

But that didn't mean she wasn't still hoping for it. Hoping for  _Wyatt_.

So to see Amy launch herself at him… Lucy sniffled through her tears and actually gagged, nearly throwing up. Leaning off the bed, she dragged the small wastepaper basket closer to her, just in case, then flopped on to her back again.

Why  _wouldn't_  Wyatt be attracted to Amy, in this timeline or any other? Amy was the younger, flirtier, cuter, more fun sister.  _Wyatt_  was younger and flirtier, Lucy knew, if she was being honest with herself. Not as young as Amy, but still, younger than she, the boring, lame, stuffy, know-it-all professor, was.

Were he and Amy  _dating_  in this timeline? Lucy had thought that Amy's mention of 'Wyatt, of course' for the barbecue guest list was just a little sister teasing a pathetic big sister about not having gone through with possibilities yet, but… had Amy been wanting Wyatt there for  _Amy_? Was  _of course_  because it should have been plainly obvious that Amy would want her boyfriend, Wyatt, there?

Lucy squeezed her eyes closed as if it would somehow prevent her from seeing the mental image of Amy in Wyatt's arms. It didn't. It just sent more tears streaming down her face. She tried to tell herself that it probably wasn't true, that she was being ridiculous and overreacting. And it wasn't even the same Wyatt, even if it was true.

Wyatt. What did  _Wyatt_ know, she wondered suddenly. Was his phone flooded with texts and calls from Amy? He wasn't from this timeline and would know if something was off like that, but Lucy had no idea how she could ask him without sounding horribly jealous of what he and Amy might have in this timeline. Because she absolutely was jealous.

A knock on her bedroom door disrupted her thoughts, but not feeling up to facing anyone, she ignored it.

It came again a moment later, along with a tentative, "Lucy?"

_Wyatt._  Of course. Lucy grimaced, but didn't respond.

"Luce?" he asked again. "I saw you come upstairs. You okay?"

"I don't feel well," she finally replied, and, to be fair, it wasn't even a lie.

Apparently it still wasn't convincing enough; after a pause he tried again. "Can I come in?"

"No!" Lucy snapped immediately,  _really_  not wanting to have to face him and explain why she was all red-eyed and snotty.

There were no further knocks, so Lucy let out a shaky sigh and rolled onto her side. What were the odds she could just hide upstairs and avoid the whole party that had only started about half an hour ago? Probably slim to none, but that didn't mean she couldn't try.

Except she didn't get very far in that attempt. Just a few moments later, the door to her room flew open.

Lucy flipped over to see who the intruder was, hurriedly wiping at her cheeks.

She was just barely quick enough to see Wyatt ushering Amy into the room and closing the door behind her.

Lucy groaned and rolled back over to face away from her.

"Hey," Amy coaxed, sitting at the foot of Lucy's bed, "what's going on with you?"

_I'm being overly emotional and irrational about the man that, officially, isn't actually anything to me, that you probably aren't, but may or may not be, dating_ , Lucy chastised herself in her head, but remained outwardly silent to Amy's questioning.

"I know you're not sick," Amy continued, a playful cadence to her voice, which Lucy knew was just a ploy to get her to talk, "because if it's your stomach, you hide in the bathroom with ginger ale and if it's a headache, you swear by that cold pack for your forehead."

Still silent, Lucy knew she was being stupid and overreacting, but she just couldn't shake them sight of Amy planting a kiss on Wyatt and being enveloped into his arms.

Nudging her in the leg, Amy tried again, sounding a little more concerned. "Luce, what's wrong?" she coaxed. "You were fine fifteen minutes ago, and you're  _not_  sick."

"It's my stomach," Lucy countered petulantly. "See?" she said, reaching for the bin she'd dragged next to her bed. "Garbage can."

"Come on," Amy whined, clearly growing more exasperated, "we have so many people here! Your friends too! And," she added conspiratorially, "you're completely missing how  _good_  Wyatt looks. I swear, he managed to find a shirt that makes his eyes look even  _more_  blue."

That line of talk did little to assuage Lucy's fear about Amy's relationship status. "Then _you_  go back down and appreciate his eyes," she snapped, before she could stop herself.

Amy snapped right back. "Are you seriously  _still_  going to hold that  _one_  time over my head?"

That piqued Lucy's interest; she leaned back in Amy's direction out of morbid curiosity. What  _one time_? What had happened  _one_  time with Wyatt that she could possibly hold over Amy's head? Then the fleeting thought that they could have slept together flitted through her mind, and, for a split second, Lucy thought she might need the garbage can after all.

"Lu-uce," Amy whined, flopping down on her back next to Lucy on the narrow twin bed. "That was before I knew who he was! And before I knew you  _totally_  had a thing for him.  _You_  were late," she rambled, " _he_  was at the bar, I didn't know  _that_  was who I was supposed to be meeting with you, and he was  _hot_. He thought it was  _funny_  when he realized who I was. It's not like he  _did_  anything when I tried to hit on him," Amy added defensively. "He has a  _serious_  thing for you."

It's all a little much for Lucy to digest – Amy  _had_  hit on Wyatt, but he'd turned her down because supposedly he has a  _thing_  for her, Lucy? But if he did, in any timeline, wouldn't he have acted on these damn possibilities already? Then again,  _she_ most certainly had a thing for him, and had for a while, but she hadn't done anything about it. But that's because he was still stuck on Jessica, and she couldn't pressure him, Lucy tried to rationalize to herself.

Unfortunately, her extended silence didn't go over well with Amy. She shot back up to a sitting position, indignant. "What? Downstairs?" she huffed. "I was talking to him about  _you_. I'm your sister – do you seriously think so little of me that you think I'm going to steal him away from you? That's pretty shitty of you, Lucy." With that, she pushed herself back up off Lucy's bed, heading for the bedroom door.

Lucy grimaced at Amy's take on the situation. They were both overreacting and being irrational, and it was the last thing she'd wanted to happen now that she finally got her sister back, but Wyatt was clearly under her skin and making her crazy, just like he had been since Arkansas.

Amy wasn't quite finished, however. "Not that anyone can actually steal him from you, you know," she lectured, "since you're not actually  _together_." With that, she yanked open the door to Lucy's room and headed out.

As if things weren't bad enough, the next thing Lucy heard was Wyatt's voice, from immediately outside her room, asking Amy, "Is she ok?"

Amy's exasperated response rang out even as she stomped down the stairs. "Would you please just go ask her out? Or fuck her? Or declare your undying love for her? Or something, if she's going to get jealous every time someone else dares to speak to you? Including her own sister?"

Lucy winced and squeezed her eyes shut, mortified by Amy's words to Wyatt. If she could have somehow gracefully crawled under her bed to hide, she would have. But it was not to be, given that she could already hear his tentative footsteps as he ventured into the room. She kept her eyes closed a moment, but when Wyatt didn't say anything, she peeked in the direction of the door.

He stood, rather uncomfortable-looking – not that she could blame him in the slightest – next to her closet, shifting his weight with a sheepish expression on his face. When he looked up and their gazes finally met, he cleared his throat and scratched at the back of his neck. "You thought I was trying to get together with your sister?"

"You know what?" Lucy declared, jumping to her feet and suddenly all too aware of how silly her presumption had been. She swiped at her still-damp cheeks and plastered a falsely cheerful smile on her far. "Let's just pretend Amy didn't say  _any_  of that and just go back downstairs."

But stupid, stubborn Wyatt wouldn't let her slip out of the room past him; he loosely grabbed her wrist with a soft "Lucy…"

Her short-lived resolve was gone the instant his hand hit her skin. A shiver went down her spine and Lucy let out a defeated sigh. "No, I didn't-" she started to protest, but then shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't know what this timeline was like," she admitted, not meeting his eyes. "You could have already been together for all I knew." And shaking her head, still trying to avoid the subject and convince herself that her words were true, she added, "It doesn't matt-"

He tried to cut her off by squaring himself to her and with a more stern "Lucy-" but she just plowed ahead, speaking right over him.

"I mean," she rambled nervously, "I wouldn't blame you; guys have been picking her over me since she started hanging out in my grad school office when she was a freshm-"

This time he interrupted her with that stupidly adorable smirk of his. "Grad school?" he echoed teasingly.

"During my Ph.D….," Lucy confirmed cautiously, puzzled by his angle.

With a grin, he shook his head at her. "All that school and you're still pretty dumb sometimes, huh?"

Lucy blinked in confusion. "What?" How had they jumped from her thinking he was with Amy, to him calling her stupid?

And then suddenly he inched closer. Close like they'd been that day back at Mason what seemed like forever ago. Lucy's breath caught in her throat and her heart beat a little faster.

"Luce," Wyatt began softly, "I'm  _so_  glad you have Amy back. And she seems  _great_ ," he admitted, with a bashful look downward before meeting her gaze again. "But she's not the Preston I want to be with."

With the remnants of her earlier tears still lurking, Lucy didn't stand a chance once he'd uttered those words. Her eyes welled up again and she shot him a watery smile, a shaky "Wyatt…" slipping from her lips.

With a slightly nervous-looking glance out her bedroom door towards the stairs, he reached for her, guiding her first by her waist then slipping his hand into hers as he nudged her to sit on the bed, then following suit and sitting beside her.

Lucy's heart raced faster as his thumb stroked back and forth over hers.

He cleared his throat again, launching into an apologetic explanation. "After your mom, and Emma, and you staying with me…" he trailed off before adding, "Amy still being gone…" He shrugged ruefully. "It didn't seem like the right time. I'm sorry I… let you doubt me," he sighed. "Us." He nodded towards the stairs that led back to the party. "When I got here, Amy obviously knew who I was, and she asked me if I was going to ask you out yet…" He trailed off again, and Lucy couldn't help but notice the faint pink tingeing his cheeks.

"She caught me off guard," he continued. "I think it was actually probably some joke that she asked every time she saw me in this timeline, probably because I was just as dumb about stalling in this timeline as our own, but for  _me_ , it was  _Amy_  asking. Part of the reason I never did anything was suddenly staring me in the face and I couldn't think of enough reasons to wait anymore." He let out a shaky laugh. "So I told her I'd ask you today. She  _flipped_  out, and I think you might have seen that and gotten the wrong idea."

Lucy nodded sheepishly, confirming his suspicion. "So even if I didn't… have a meltdown," she laughed, sniffling, "you would have-"

"-wanted to have this conversation," he finished definitively. "I'm tired of waiting, Lucy."

And then suddenly, they weren't waiting anymore; his lips were on hers, his hands at her waist to pull her to him, right there on the tiny bed in her childhood room. If it weren't for the fact that, a few moments later, his tongue was on hers and he was kneeling over her and easing her down to lie on the bed, Lucy might have laughed at the fact that the goody-two-shoes 16-year-old version of herself that had also lived in that same bedroom would have been both scandalized by and secretly jealous of her 34-year-old self.

But with Wyatt's mouth on her neck and his weight pressing down on her, she hardly had the brainpower for such thinking.

They barely noticed when, another minute or so later, Amy bounded back up the stairs, and, with a smug chuckle in their direction, pulled the door to Lucy's room closed.

**~FIN~**

**Author's Note:**

> This stems from the moment in the finale that Lucy alluded to here. We already know she wants Wyatt, right? We can agree on that? That it's canon that she's pretty well in love with him already? Anyway, I _swear_ that when he says "Pendleton can wait", Lucy's face starts as a gleeful grin that screams _"Me! Me! He wants to stay to BE with me!"_ but that when he continues with the mention of getting Amy back, her face seems like more of a forced smile, like suddenly the internal monologue switched to _'Well, no, Lucy, you dumbass. He's just being a good guy and trying to help you get your sister. Why would you think he wants you? He still wants his wife back.'_ And then she brings up Jessica accordingly.
> 
> Have I watched that scene WAY too many times? Yes. Am I reading WAY too much into it? Also yes. But… it would make sense with her later, semi-confused, 'Possibilities of what?' if she was already all over the place in terms of mental gymnastics and needed to try to clarify what Wyatt was actually implying, and if it was really about her.
> 
> Anyway, if the above happened, I could also easily see a fleeting, panicky thought in there when Lucy thinks that Wyatt doesn't want her, but he does want to help get Amy back, and _oh god, what if he falls for Amy?_
> 
> And there be the 'logic' that led to this fic… :D
> 
> (Also, why, in the original timeline when Henry, Carol, Lucy, and Amy were a happy family of four, did the girls not have their father's last name? Sure, it makes sense for Lucy, once you know that she wasn't Henry's daughter, but it doesn't make sense for her if you didn't know that, and it never makes sense for Amy. Just Carol being super-feminist or something? Ideas, anyone? It's bugged me for a while now…)


End file.
